The Netscape Plug-in API (NPAPI) ushered in an early era of web innovation by offering the first standard mechanism to extend the browser. In fact, many modern web platform features—including video and audio support—first saw mainstream deployment through NPAPI-based plug-ins.

But the web has evolved. Today’s browsers are speedier, safer, and more capable than their ancestors. Meanwhile, NPAPI’s 90s-era architecture has become a leading cause of hangs, crashes, security incidents, and code complexity. Because of this, Chrome will be phasing out NPAPI support over the coming year.

Starting in January 2014, Chrome will block webpage-instantiated NPAPI plug-ins by default on the Stable channel. To avoid disruption to users, we will temporarily whitelist the most popular NPAPI plug-ins that are not already blocked for security reasons. These are:

In the short term, end users and enterprise administrators will be able to whitelist specific plug-ins. Eventually, however, NPAPI support will be completely removed from Chrome. We expect this to happen before the end of 2014, but the exact timing will depend on usage and user feedback. Note that the built-in Flash plug-in and PDF viewer will be unaffected because they don’t use NPAPI.

The Chrome Web Store will also be phasing out NPAPI support. Starting today, no new Apps or Extensions containing NPAPI-based plug-ins will be allowed in the Web Store. Developers will be able to update their existing NPAPI-based Apps and Extensions until May 2014, when updates will be blocked. Also in May, listings for NPAPI-based Apps and Extensions will be removed from the Web Store home page, search results, and category pages. In September 2014, all existing NPAPI-based Apps and Extensions will be unpublished. Existing installations will continue to work until Chrome fully removes support for NPAPI.

There are several alternatives to NPAPI. In cases where standard web technologies are not yet sufficient, developers and administrators can use NaCl, Apps, Native Messaging API, and Legacy Browser Support to transition from NPAPI. Moving forward, our goal is to evolve the standards-based web platform to cover the use cases once served by NPAPI.

April 2014: NPAPI support was removed from Chrome for Linux in release 35.

April 2014: Developers will be able to update Apps and Extensions that use NPAPI until their listings are unpublished in September. This deviation from the original schedule is to allow for security updates.

Chrome Apps now bring the best of productivity, games and more to your desktop. The Chrome App Launcher is available for Windows and Chrome OS, and today we're unveiling the launcher for Mac OS X on the Chrome Developer Channel.

The launcher provides an easy way to find and launch your Chrome Apps, while at the same time integrating closely with the operating system so that your Chrome Apps behave and feel just like regular native ones. For example, on Macs you can find your Chrome Apps in the launcher, Applications folder, in the Dock and when you do a Spotlight search—just like any other Mac app that you already use.

To get the launcher, just install a Chrome App from the Chrome Web Store, such as this text editor or note-taking app. The first time you install an app, the launcher will show up as an icon in the Dock. Chrome Packaged Apps for the Mac are available in the dev channel of Chrome and will be launched to stable channel soon.

In the meantime, you can build your own packaged app, upload it to the Chrome Web Store and give all of your users access to it via a direct link. Have questions about this or any other Chrome Apps features? We always welcome your feedback on Stack Overflow, our G+ Developers page, or our developer forum.